Shivaji and His Times c13.s6.6

c13.s6.6

Nor even among such heroic figures did the citizens fail to notice the high brows, the bright but sunken eyes, and the painted foreheads of the Maratha Brahmans, whose administrative capacity and diplomatic skill had facilitated and confirmed the conquests achieved by the swords of these men: Raghunath and Janardan Narayan Hanumante, until recently the uncrowned kings of Tanjore; Prahlad Niraji, the resident ambassador at Haidarabad; Dattaji Trimbak the chronicler (waqnis), Kesho Pant, and Nilo Moreshwar and Gangadhar Pant the auditors (majmuadars.) With them were mingled the more retiring and studiously unostentatious figures of the Kayastha writers: Nila Prabhu, the accomplished Persian draftsman (munshi), Balaji Avji, that jewel of a secretary (chitnis) whom Shivaji loved to keep close to his person; and also, but of another caste, Shamji Nayak, the Keeper of the Seal.